An eary business
by flyin'rabbit
Summary: While on the hunt for magical creatures, Luna and Rolf come across something entirely different from that...


"Is that someone's… ear?!?"

Luna stood up from where she was crouching and made her way over to Rolf, who was staring down at something incredulously. The two of them had met only a month earlier, and at the moment, they were looking for strange species in England. Which was why they were in this forest in the first place.

The thing lying on the ground looked fascinating to Luna. At the same time, though, she figured that the ear might have been there for quite some time; at least, that was what it looked like. It was covered with sand and even a small cobweb. How an ear could solely survive for such a long time was beyond her; but, of course, the world was full of strange things.

"I don't know, it could be… it certainly looks like it." Luna crouched down next to the ear, and Rolf did so too. She reached out to the ear-like thing, but Rolf stopped her.

"What if it's cursed?" he asked urgently.

Luna laughed merrily. "Rolf, it's an _ear_. Well, we think it's an ear. What harm could it do?"

Rolf pondered this for a moment, and then he asked, "But how do you suppose it got here?"

"I don't know. Maybe the Crups left it here?"

"Luna, there are no Crups in this area."

"They could have migrated! Maybe they came across a Muggle and became violent!"

"And they left nothing but his ear?" Rolf sounded a little sceptical. "But I suppose you could be right. Maybe they didn't like the taste of one of his ears, so they left the other one here…"

"Do you think we should return it?" Luna asked with concern.

"To a dead person?" Rolf said, perplexed.

"Maybe the owner's family can derive some comfort from it." With that, Luna grabbed one of the bags they had brought to collect all kinds of things in, and carefully placed the ear inside, after brushing off the dust and the cobweb. "Let's look for Crups now, alright?"

"Luna," Rolf asked later, "how are we going to return that ear to its owner? Or the family?"

"We'll find a way," Luna said absent-mindedly. "Maybe we can hand out flyers?"

Rolf snorted. "What would those flyers have to say, then? 'Ear here?'"

Luna shrugged. "I'm quite certain that we'll find people who will want to take care for the ear. Too bad we didn't find any Crups," she added, no longer bothered with the ear-problem.

"Maybe we'll have more luck tomorrow," Rolf said, smiling, holding open the door to the Leaky Cauldron for Luna.

As she stepped inside, she immediately spotted a couple of familiar looking people sitting there. Pulling Rolf along, she brightly greeted them. "Hello! That's a coincidence! We were just about to eat something, mind if we join you? Oh, by the way, this is Rolf Scamander. Rolf, these are my friends!"

"Sure, Luna, sit down. Nice to meet you, Rolf," Harry said, seeming a little caught of guard by Luna's sudden appearance and her cheerful manner.

"What brings you here?" Ginny asked, after Luna and Rolf had sat down.

"We were a little hungry," Luna answered. "Looking for magical creatures all day can do that, you know."

"Oh – er, did you find anything?" Harry asked, looking slightly flabbergasted.

"We found an ear," Luna told them.

"A what?" Ginny asked.

"An ear," Rolf said. "You know, those things on either side of your head?"

"You found an ear?" Ginny asked incredulously. "Sorry, I thought you were talking about some magical creature. How on earth did you find an ear?"

"Well, you know, we were walking through a forest, and it was there. We didn't really have to do much," Rolf answered.

"Do you want to see it?" Luna asked them. "I've got it here."

Ginny stared at her, wide-eyed. "No, thanks. Wasn't the ear completely decayed when you found it?"

Luna and Rolf exchanged a glance, and then Luna replied, "No, it wasn't. Should it be?"

"If it was there for a long time, then it probably should," Ginny said. "But maybe there's something going on with that ear…"

"Can we see it after all?" Harry asked, and Luna held out the paper bag for him.

Harry shook the ear out of the bag, and Ginny prodded it with her wand. "It looks almost as new," she concluded.

"Apart from the blood, of course," Rolf cut in.

"We think it was the Crups," Luna told her friends. "And the ear must have been a Muggle's. Crups hate Muggles, you know."

"Where did you say you found it? In a forest?" Harry asked them. "That's very bizarre."

Rolf described the location of the forest, but it didn't ring any bells. "Maybe we should let Hermione take a look at it?" Ginny said, more to Harry than Luna or Rolf.

"We were planning on returning it," Luna said firmly. "It doesn't need a thorough examination or anything. It's an ear."

"Returning it? How?" Harry asked.

"Don't know," Rolf mumbled, obviously not completely at ease. Luna wasn't up to answering any more questions too, so she carefully laid the ear back into the bag, and turned to Rolf.

"Do you want to go?" she asked softly, so Harry and Ginny wouldn't hear. Rolf let out a sound that could be interpreted as a lot of stuff, so Luna just smiled at him. "Lovely, then we'll go." She turned back to her friends, but before she could speak up, a male voice came from behind.

"Ginny, Harry, how are you doing? Oh, Luna, hi. Er – and this is?"

"This is Rolf," Ginny answered. "Luna's – friend? Rolf, this is George, one of my older brothers."

"Nice meeting you, Rolf," George Weasley said, shaking hands with Rolf. "Did Luna make you do weird stuff yet?"

Luna flushed as he said this. Surely her beliefs weren't very common, but that didn't immediately make them weird, right? Rolf shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "No, not really. Unless you would want to count looking for strange creatures as weird stuff. But I think that's rather nice, personally."

George, for once, seemed not to know what to say for a moment, but Ginny cut in. "They found an ear today."

George laughed loudly. "An ear? Do you honestly mean that? An _ear_?"

"I don't see how that's so funny," Luna said, indignantly. "I wouldn't like _my_ ears to lie in a forest somewhere."

"In a forest, you say?" George asked, suddenly interested. "Where?"

While Rolf, once again, described the location, a sudden realisation hit Luna. "Is it yours?" she asked George, interrupting Rolf mid-sentence. She hastily opened the bag again and showed it contents to George.

"You know, that could be very possible," George said, eyeing the ear. "All that blood…"

"George, I think everyone would bleed if their ears were chopped off," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "But if it's George's, then how come it looks like it was only ripped off recently?"

"Your ear was chopped off? Really?" Rolf asked disbelievingly.

"Cursed off," George corrected him, turning his head to the side so Rolf could have a good look at his head.

"Maybe that's why it's still so intact," Harry mused. "If it's really your ear, George, maybe the dark magic unintentionally put a protection on it? What?" he added, seeing the others watching him sceptically. "It's possible, and it's not as if we've got some other explanation for it, do we?"

"Yeah, I guess," Ginny replied. "But dark magic protecting something? That sounds just odd."

"Oh well," George said, "I don't think they'll be able to tape this back on and get it to work anymore. I'll just put it in a frame and hang it on the wall, I think. Even if it isn't mine, it'd be nice to have this as a reminder. Thanks for the ear, Luna, Rolf."

"You're welcome," Luna said, smiling a little. "But I really think we should go now, right, Rolf?"

After they had said their goodbyes to the others, they walked out of the pub. "I told you we would be able to give the ear back to its owner, didn't I?" Luna asked happily, once they were outside.

"Yes, I suppose you were, Luna. Thankfully, it wasn't some dead Muggle's ear."

Luna smiled slightly. "You're a funny one, Rolf. Perhaps we should go and look for magical creatures some more, together."

"You know Luna, that might not be a bad idea at all," Rolf answered, grinning, as they walked into the night.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, what did you think? Let me know, please review!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything :(


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